BUDDHIST 

TEXTS 

IN  JOHN 

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PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


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tea. —  Umiflfe. 

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Specimen  page  of  the  King  of  Siam's  edition 
of  the  Buddhist  Scriptures  in  Pali,  (Bangkok, 
1894,  39  vols.,  octavo.)  Photographed  by  Julius 
F.  Sachse,   1899,  and  reduced  from  octavo  size. 


Buddhist  Texts   Quoted 
as  Scripture 


BY  THE 


GOSPEL  OF  JOHN  : 
a  discovery  in  the  lower  criticism. 

Oohn   yil.  38  ;   XI L  34.) 

y 

By  ALBERT  J.  EDMUNDS, 
Author  of  Buddhist  and  Christian  Gospels. 


Philadelphia  : 

Maurice  Brix,  129  South  Fifteenth  Street,  and  A.  J.  Edmunds, 

241  West  Duval  Street. 

1906. 


Copyright 

1906 

by  Albert  J.   Edmunds. 


Dedicated  to  my  friend  MAURICE  BRIX. 


PREFACE. 

Since  the  manuscript  of  Buddhist  and  Christian 
Gospels  was  despatched  to  Japan  in  September, 
1904,  I  have  continued  to  find  parallels  between 
the  two  great  religions.  A  remarkable  one,  dis- 
covered this  spring  in  a  Buddhist  book  newly 
published  by  the  London  Pali  Text  Society,  has 
called  forth  the  present  essay.  For  fuller  informa- 
tion my  readers  must  refer  to  the  T5ky5  book. 

Our  somewhat  provincial  education  has  not  yet 
made  us  realize  that,  at  the  time  of  Christ,  India 
was  one  of  the  four  great  Powers  of  the  earth. 
The  other  three  were  China,  Rome  and  Parthia. 
But  India  was  the  greatest  intellectually,  and  her 
then  most  popular  religion.  Buddhism,  was  the 
dominant  spiritual  force  upon  the  continent  of 
Asia. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  so  few  theologians  and 
even  Orientalists  are  acquainted  with  Pali  literature 
Our  culture  has  too  long  been  bounded  by  the 
River  Euphrates,  and  the  central  fact  of  the  world's 
religious  history  has  not  yet  taken  its  place  in  the 
historical  imagination  of  Europe  and  America. 
That  central  fact  is  this  : — The  two  greatest  mission- 
ary religions,  each  emanating  from  a  wonderful  per- 
sonality, started  from  the  Holy  Land  of  antiquity,* 
and  proceeded  in  opposite  directions  around  the 

*The  region  between  the  Ganges  and  the  Nile.  See 
Buddhist  and  Christian  Gospels,  Historical  Introduction. 


world.  Each  went  as  far  as  it  could  go  until  it 
reached  the  Pacific  Ocean  ;  and  now,  in  Japan  and 
the  United  States,  these  two  great  world- faiths  are 
facing  each  other.  Henceforth  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
instead  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  must  be  the 
centre  of  our  culture  ;  and  the  two  religions,  instead 
of  being  enemies,  must  be  friends. 

241  West  Duval  Street, 
Germantown : 

May  30 — July  4,  1906. 


BUDDHIST   TEXTS   QUOTED  AS 

SCRIPTURE 

BY  THE  GOSPEL  OF  JOHN. 


It  is  well  known,  that  there  are,  in  the  New 
Testament,  quotations  from  other  literatures  than 
the  Hebrew  and  the  books  of  its  Canon,  as  when 
Paul  quotes  the  Greek  poet  Aratus  (i)  and  Jude  the 
apocryphal  book  of  Enoch.     (2) 

In  the  Gospel  of  Mark  there  is  a  quotation,  as  if 
from  Scripture,  which  does  not  occur  in  the  Old 
Testament,  but  which  Rendel  Harris  discovered  in 
a  midrash  on  Genesis  ascribed  to  Philo.  (3)  It 
evidently  emanates  from  some  early  commentary 
or  apocryphal  work  known  to  the  Evangelist. 

MARK  IX.  13. 
I  say  unto  you,  that  Elijah  is  come,  and  they 
have   also   done   unto   him   whatsoever   they 
listed,  even  as  it  is  written  of  him. 

Nowhere  does  the  Old  Testament  foretell  that 
the  second  Elijah  will  be  persecuted.  The  quota- 
tion is  therefore  apocryphal  or  extra-Judaic. 

(i)     Acts  XVII.  28. 

(2)  Jude  14  and  15. 

(3)  Philonis  Judaei  Alexandrini  libri  Antiquitatum,  Quaes- 
tionum  et  Solutionum  in  Genesin.     Basilese,  1527,  folio. 


Scholars  have  long  been  accustomed  to  such 
quotations,  and  are  not  astonished  thereat  when 
they  spring  from  the  literature  that  surrounded  the 
Judseans.  But  modern  research  has  made  it  clear 
that  a  wider  range  of  influence  affected  the  com- 
position of  the  New  Testament  than  the  books  of 
the  Hebrews,  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans.  Here- 
tofore, these  have  been  our  three  classic  nations, 
and  their  common  lake,  the  Mediterranean,  has 
been  our  central  sea ;  but  since  the  acquisition  of 
India  by  the  English  in  1757,  and  especially  since 
that  of  the  Philippines  by  ourselves,  the  sacred 
books  of  Asia  have  widened  our  horizon.  The 
Pacific  Ocean  is  now  our  central  sea,  and  to  our 
classical  peoples  we  have  added  several  more,  with 
India  first  and  foremost.  We  have  found  that 
India  was  the  home  of  the  ancient  fable,  the  mother 
of  ^sop  and  of  the  Arabian  Nights.  A  folk-lorist 
has  traced  Indian  fables  in  the  Jewish  Talmud,  one 
of  which  can  be  dated  at  A.  D.  118.     (4) 

Three  stories  in  the  Christian  Apocryphal  Gospels 
are  also  found  in  that  great  Buddhist  apocryphal 
gospel,  the   Lalita   Vtstara,  (5)  which   contains  a 

(4)  See  ^sop's  Fables.  Edited  by  Joseph  Jacobs. 
London,  1889. 

(5)  These  stories  are:  the  obeisance  of  idols  to  the 
Divine  Child  in  a  temple  ;  his  supernatural  knowledge  of  the 
alphabet  ;  and  his  being  lost  by  his  parents  and  found  engaged 
in  religious  activity.  These  parallels  will  all  be  fully  treated 
in  my  next  edition  of  Buddhist  and  Christian  Gospels.  My 
attention  has  been  directed  to  them  by  the  works  of  Pfleiderer 
and  Van  Eysinga. 


poetical  account  of  Buddha's  early  life,  and  was 
translated  into  Chinese  in  the  seventh  century, 
while  a  legendary  life  of  Buddha,  closely  akin,  was 
translated  in  the  sixties  of  the  first  century. 

It  has  also  been  discovered  that  the  life  of 
Buddha  was  translated  into  the  language  of  Persia 
quite  early  in  our  era,  and  worked  up  into  a  Chris- 
tian romance  called  Barlaam  and  Joasaph.  This 
ancient  church  novel  was  popular  all  over  Europe 
throughout  the  middle  ages,  from  Greece  to  Ice- 
land, while  so  late  as  the  eighteenth  century  a 
Jesuit  bearing  the  historic  name  of  Borgia  translated 
it  into  the  Tagalog  of  the  Philippine  Islands  !  The 
name  Joasaph  or  Josaphat  (for  it  is  written  both 
ways)  has  been  proven  to  be  a  corruption  of  the 
Sanskrit  Bodhisattva,  a  title  of  the  youthful  Buddha ; 
and  the  Indian  saint,  under  this  disguise,  was 
canonized  by  both  Greek  and  Roman  Churches. 
On  the  twenty-sixth  of  August  in  the  Eastern  com- 
munion and  on  the  twenty-seventh  of  November 
in  the  Western,  we  have  the  singular  spectacle  of 
Catholic  priests  commemorating  the  Hindu  thinker 
as  a  Christian  saint. 

Now  it  has  been  cogently  argued  by  a  European 
scholar  (6)  that  if  Christendom  could  thus  borrow 
from  Buddhism  in  the  sixth  century,  it  could  do 
the  same  in  the  first,  for  the  same  channels  of  inter- 
course were  open.  Indeed  at  the  time  of  Christ 
this  intercourse  was  at  its  height,  for  the  geographer 

(6)  Van  Eysinga,  in  his  work  on  Hindu  Influence  upon 
the  Gospels.      1901  and  1904. 


Strabo,  who  was  writing  in  the  twenties  of  the  first 
century,  when  the  youthful  Jesus  was  a  carpenter 
in  Galilee,  saw  one  hundred  and  twenty  ships  pre- 
pared to  sail  from  a  Red  Sea  port  to  India. 

If  this  be  the  case,  we  need  not  be  astonished  at 
the  following  Buddhist  text  embedded  in  the  Gospel 
of  John,  that  most  mystic  and  recondite  of  the  four, 
charged,  as  it  is,  with  the  philosophy  of  Ephesus 
and  Alexandria,  where  the  thought  of  all  nations 
found  a  home. 

MIRACULOUS   WATER  PROCEEDS 
FROM  THE  SAINT. 


John  VII.  38.  He  that  believeth  on  me,  as 
the  Scripture  hath  said,  out  of  his  belly  shall 
flow  rivers  of  living  water. 

THE  WAY  TO  SUPERNAL  KNOWLEDGE 

(Patisambhida-maggo)   I.  53. 

What  is  the  Tathagato's  knowledge  of  the 
twin  miracle  ?  In  this  case,  the  Tathagato 
works  a  twin  miracle  unrivalled  by  disciples  : 
from  his  upper  body  proceeds  a  flame  of  fire, 

and  from  his  lower  body  proceeds  a  torrent  of  water. 
Again,  from  his  lower  body  proceeds  a  flame 
of  fire,  and  from  his  upper  body  a  torrent  of 
water. 


Here  the   words    of    John,     r.orafiot  'ex  nj?  xodcag   aurou 

peuffoufftv  udaro?  equate  the  Pali  heithimakayato  udaka- 


dharh  pavattati,  except  for  the  tense  and  number, 
and  the  word  **  proceed  "  or  "  roll  forth,"  instead  of 
"flow,"  and  "lower  body"  instead  of  "belly." 
(7)  The  addition  of  Cw^r^?  in  the  Greek  is  the  only 
word  which  can  be  ascribed  to  the  Old  Testament : 
"  living  water  "  occurs  in  several  of  the  prophets. 
But  the  quotation  as  a  whole  is  not  there.  Dean 
Alford,  in  his  commentary,  voices  the  despair  of  all 
the  exegetes  from  the  beginning,  when  he  says  : 
"  We  look  in  vain  for  such  a  text  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, and  an  apocryphal  or  lost  canonical  book  is 
out  of  the  question."  The  learned  dean  interprets 
by  making  the  body  refer  to  the  under  part  of  the 
temple  in  an  oracle  of  Ezekiel,  wherein  that  mystic 
beholds  rivers  of  living  water  preceeding  from  be- 
neath the  holy  place.  But  no  such  far-fetched 
theory  is  needful  any  longer,  now  that  we  have 
found  a  Buddhist  oracle  almost  verbally  coincident. 
In  a  book  of  Buddhist  legends  called  Avadanas 
is  one  entitled  sutra  instead  of  avadana,  thus  aim- 
ing at  canonical  rank.  (8)  This  is  the  Pratiha^ya 
Sutra,  i.  e.  Sacred  Book  about  Miracles.  It  is 
also  embedded  in  the  canonical  Book  of  Discipline 
of  a  sect  whose  recension  of  the  scriptures  of  Bud- 
dhism has  been  lost  in  the  original  Pali  or  Sanskrit, 
but  preserved  in  Chinese  and  Tibetan.  This  Book 
of  Miracles  relates  that  Buddha  sent  forth  fire  and 
water  from  his  person,  and  produced  other  startling 
phenomena  to  confound  unbelievers.  All  sects  did 
not  admit  the  story  into  the  Canon,  for  in  the  Pali 
Book  of  Discipline,  transmitted  by  the  school  of 

(7)  See  Appendix  B. 

(8)  " 


the  Elders,  at  the  very  point  in  the  text  where  the 
legend  occurs  in  the  Tibetan  version,  there  is  re- 
ported a  miracle  by  a  disciple  which  Buddha  sternly 
forbade.  However,  albeit  uncanonical  according 
to  the  conservative  Elders,  the  story  is  ancient  and 
appears  in  A^vaghosha's  first-century  poem,  (9) 
while  it  is  evidently  understood  in  the  text  above 
quoted  from  the  JVay  to  Supernal  Knowledge. 
Moreover,  it  is  ranked  with  the  Canonical  life-scenes 
in  a  Ceylon  temple-sculpture  of  the  second  century 
before  Christ.     According  to  the  Great  Chronicle, 

"  The  miracle  under  the  mango-tree  "  (10) 
was  graven  upon  the  Great  Tope  at  Anuradhapura, 
together  with  the  incidents  that  follow  it  in  the 
Miracle  Sutra.  These  sculptures  are  buried  or  de- 
stroyed, but  the  extant  remains  at  Bharahat  and 
Sanci  prove  that  the  whole  legend  of  Buddha's  early 
life  was  already  highly  developed  at  the  time  of 
Christ.     (See  Appendix.) 

The  Fourth  Evangelist  transfigures  the  passage, 
and  converts  the  miraculous  torrent  of  the  magus 
into  a  spiritual  river.  The  single  adjective  "living," 
with  its  prophetic  associations,  is  enough  to  exalt 
the  whole  conception  into  a  loftier  sphere.  At  the 
same  time  we  must  remember  that  the  Buddhists 
also  found  mystical  meanings  in  their  Scriptures, 
and  produced  their  Philos  and  their  Origens,  as  we 
shall  some  day  realize  more  fully,  when  the  vast 
literature  preserved  in  Chinese  is  made  known  to 
Europe  and  America.  Living  water  or  immortal 
drink  is  also  a  Buddhist  phrase,  and  in  the  Realist 

(9)     See  Appendix  B. 
(10) 


Book  of  Discipline  (Tibetan)  it  is  applied  to  Nir 
va?za.  The  conception  that  lies  behind  the  legend 
of  the  Twin  Miracle  is  that  of  the  microcosm :  the 
saint  is  conceived  as  uniting  in  himself  all  nature, 
and  hence  in  the  water-meditation  he  is  assimilated 
to  water,  and  in  the  flame-meditation  he  passes 
away  in  fire. 

Be  it  observed  that,  in  the  Pali  text,  this  miracle 
is  "  unrivalled  by  disciples,"  and  indeed  the  sum- 
ming up  expressly  says  that  Buddhas  alone  can 
perform  it.  But  in  the  Book  of  Avadanas,  which 
has  Realist  affinities,  the  Buddhist  Daniel  performs 
the  Twin  Miracle  : 

From  half  of  his  body  the  water  did  rain  ; 
From  half  did  the  fire  of  a  sacrifice  blaze. 

Moreover,  in  the  Pali  texts  themselves,  Dabbo  the 
Mallian  emits  fire  from  his  fingers  to  light  the  monks 
to  bed,  and  finally  passes  away  in  the  flame-medi- 
tation, a  veritable  Buddhist  Elijah. 

Similarly  in  the  Gospel,  the  believer  can  accom- 
plish the  water-miracle,  though  of  course  in  a 
mystical  sense,  in  accordance  with  the  higher  plane 
of  the  Fourth  Evangelist.  Moreover,  the  latter  is 
probably  quoting  some  Buddhist  collection  belong- 
ing to  the  Realist  school,  which  predominated  in 
Northwestern  India,  where  the  Greek  empire  ad- 
joined. It  is  almost  certain  that  such  a  collection 
had  found  its  way  westward  in  the  Yonaloko,  per- 
haps in  Greek,  perhaps  in  Syriac.  The  recent 
discovery   of    Manichaean    Scriptures    in     Chinese 


Turkestan  has  prepared  us  for  anything  in  the  way 
of  ancient  distribution  of  sacred  literature. 

Now,  while  one  case  of  the  mysterious  Fourth 
Evangelist  quoting  a  Buddhist  text  as  Scripture 
would  be  remarkable,  two  such  cases  are  significant, 
and  almost  certainly  imply  historical  connection, 
especially  when  taken  together  with  the  fact  that 
other  parts  of  the  Gospels  present  verbal  agreements 
with  Pali  texts.  And  there  is  one  other  case  where 
the  Gospel  of  John  quotes  a  Buddhist  oracle  as 
Scripture.  It  was  first  pointed  out  in  the  Chicago 
Open  Court  for  February,  1900.  Indeed  it  was 
placed  at  the  very  outset  of  my  first  series  of  Gospel 
Parallels  from  Pali  texts.  It  has  been  reprinted  in 
subsequent  editions  of  that  collection,  and  last  ap- 
peared in  the  third  edition  of  Buddhist  and  Chris- 
tian Gospels  (Tokyo,  1905,  p.  146.)  It  is  here 
reprinted  and  amplified  : — 

THE  CHRIST  REMAINS   [on  earth]   FOR 
THE  i^ON. 

John  XII.  34.  The  multitude  therefore  an- 
swered him,  We  have  heard  out  of  the  law, 
that  the  Christ  abideth  forever  \ti^  rw  aiwva,  for 
the  seon.'] 

Enunciations  VI.  I,  and  Long  Collection,  Dia- 
logue 16  {Book  of  the  Great  Decease.  Translated 
in  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  XI,  p.  40.) 

Anando,  any  one  who  has  practised  the  four 
principles  of  psychical  power,  —  developed 
them,  made  them  active  and  practical,  pursued 

13 


them,  accumulated  and  striven  to  the  height 
thereof, — can,  if  he  so  should  wish,  remain 
[on  earth]  for  the  aeon  or  the  rest  of  the  aeon. 
Now,  Anando,  the  Tathagato  has  practised 
and  perfected  these  ;  and  if  he  so  should  wish, 
the  Tathagato  could  remain  [on  earth]  for  the  oson 
or  the  rest  of  the  aeon. 

The  words  in  italics  agree  with  those  in  the 
Greek  of  John,  except  the  mood  and  tense  of  the 
verb.  Rendel  Harris  has  pointed  out  to  me  that 
the  tense  of  nevei  is  ambiguous,  being  either  present 
or  future.  This  is  because  the  oldest  manuscripts 
are  without  accents.  Tathagato  is  a  religious  title 
equivalent  to  Christ.  Its  exact  meaning  is  still  de- 
bated, but  its  analogy  to  Sugato  is  obvious,  and 
Rhys  Davids'  translation  of  it  as  Truth-winner  is 
probably  as  near  the  mark  as  we  shall  ever  get. 

As  our  text  occurs  also  in  the  Sanskrit  of  the 
Book  of  Avadanas  (which  has  an  independent 
transmission)  its  antiquity  is  certain.  Moreover, 
the  Book  of  the  Great  Decease  and  that  of  Enuncia- 
tions are  two  of  the  oldest  in  the  Pali,  Enunciations 
being  also  one  of  the  Nine  Divisions  of  a  lost 
arrangement  of  the  Canon. 

The  ascription  of  the  saying  in  John  to  "the  mul- 
titude" shows  it  to  have  been  a  current  belief  at 
the  time  of  Christ.  It  is  not  a  New  Testament  doc- 
trine, though  the  physical  Second  Coming  has 
been  assimilated  to  it.  Commentators  have  been 
at   a   loss   to   identify  the  Old  Testament  passage 

»4 


("  out  of  the  Law  ")  which  is  supposed  to  be  quoted. 
The  Twentieth  Century  New  Testament  proposes 
the  Aramaic  version  of  Isaiah  IX.  7  as  the  source. 
The  learned  August  Wiinsche,  in  his  work  on  the 
Gospels  and  the  Talmud,  says  that  the  source  is 
unknown.  Be  that  as  it  may,  we  have  here  a  verbal 
Pali  parallel : — 

6  XptffTo^  fisv£t  ei^  Tov  atwva  =  Tdthagato  kcLppavci. 
ttttheyya. 

A  kindred  sentiment  appears  at  the  conclusion 
of  Matthew : 

Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end 
of  the  aeon. 

If  we  could  be  sure  that  the  Evangelist  was  copy- 
ing this  from  the  lost  Mark-ending  or  from  the 
Logia,  we  could  pronounce  it  a  first-century  docu- 
ment and  an  utterance  of  the  Lord  ;  but  we  cannot, 
and  most  Matthaean  additions  to  the  Synoptical 
record  are  suspect.  It  is  quite  likely  that  these 
words  were  added  to  the  First  Gospel  after  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  Fourth,  with  its  doctrine  of  the 
Paraclete.  On  the  other  hand,  we  can  date  the 
first  translation  of  the  corresponding  Buddhist 
doctrine  into  Chinese  at  about  A.  D.  68,  and  this 
in  a  popular  manual  which  presupposes  the  vast 
body  of  the  Sutras.     (See  note  18.) 

Another  verbal  agreement  between  John  and  the 
Pali  texts  (though  not  expressly  quoted)  is  given  in 
Buddhist  and  Christian  Gospels,  p.  138: — 

I  have  overcome  the  world. 

IS 


In  the  Johannine  spirit  is  : — 

He  who  sees  the  truth  sees  me, 

(Op.  cit.  p.  150.) 

The  following  Parallels  are  also  Johannine : — 

No.  29.     Disciples  repelled  by  deep  doctrine. 

"     42.     The  Saviour  is  unique. 

"     44.     The  Light  of  the  World. 

"     45.     I  am  a  King. 

"  47.  The  Master  remembers  a  pre-exist- 
ent  state. 

"     48.     Knowing  God  and  his  Kingdom. 

'*  51.  The  Master  can  Renounce  or  pro- 
long his  Life. 

"     58.      In  the  World,  but  not  of  the  World 

Another  noteworthy  parallel,  with  some  verbal 
agreements,  is  found  in  certain  phrases  of  Luke's 
angelic  Birth-Hymn,  as  was  pointed  out  in  my 
pamphlet  of  1905.     (11) 

Luke  n.     8-14. 

And  there  were  shepherds  in  the  same  coun- 
try abiding  in  the  field,  and  keeping  watch  by 
night  over  their  flock.  And  an  angel  of  the 
Lord  stood  by  them,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord 
shone  round  about  them  :  and  they  were  sore 
afraid.  And  the  angel  said  unto  them.  Be  not 
afraid ;  for  behold,  I  bring  you  good  tidings  of 

(/z)  Ca?i  the  Pali  Pitakas  aid  us  infixing  the  Text  of  the 
Gospels  f     Philadelphia,  1905,  8  vo.  pp.  8. 

16 


great  joy  which  shall  be  to  all  the  people :  for 
there  is  born  to  you  this  day  in  the  city  of  David  a 
Saviour,  which  is  Christ  the  Lord.  And  this  is 
the  sign  unto  you :  Ye  shall  find  a  babe 
wrapped  in  swaddling  clothes,  and  lying  in  a 
manger.  And  suddenly  there  was  with  the 
angel  a  multitude  of  the  heavenly  host  praising 
God,  and  saying, 

Glory  to  God  in  the  highest. 

And  on  earth  peace,  divine  favor  among  men. 


Sutta  Nipato,    Mahavaggo,  Nalaka-Suttam. 

The  heavenly  hosts,  rejoicing,  delighted. 

And    Sakko   the   leader   and   angels    white- 

stoled. 
Seizing  their  robes,  and  praising  exceedingly, 
Did  Asito  the  hermit  see  in  noonday  rest. 

[He  asks  the  angels  why  they  rejoice,  and  they 
answer  :] 

The   Buddha-to-be,    the    best   and   matchless 
Jewel, 

Is  bor7i  for  weal  and  welfare  in  the  world  of  meuy 
In  the  town  of  the  Sakyas,  in  the  region  of 

Lumbini : 
Therefore  are  we  joyful  and  exceeding  glad. 

The  parallel  is  further  carried  out  in  the  narra- 
tive :  the  hermit,  like  the  shepherds,  goes  to  pay 
his  reverence  to  the  newborn  Saviour. 


17 


Here  the  Greek  i~c  t?j?  ;'5j?  ^^pv^^,  ^^  dvOpajTzoc^  edSoxta 
appears  to  be  a  reminiscence  of  the  Pali  7nanussa~ 
loke  hitasukhataya,  "for  weal  and  welfare  in  the 
world  of  men,"  an  oft-repeated  phrase  in  the  Pali 
texts. 

Another  verbal  parallel  will  be  found  in  my 
Japanese  book,  at  p.  213.  I  here  reprint  it,  with 
slight  changes,  from  the  Ope^i  Court,  where  it  first 
appeared,  in  April,  1900  : — 

AN  iEON-LASTING  SIN. 

Mark  III.  29.  Whosoever  shall  blaspheme 
against  the  Holy  Spirit  hath  never  forgiveness, 
but  is  guilty  of  an  aeon-lasting  sin. 

CullavaggoVW.  3.  (Translated  in  S.  B.  E.  XX. 
P-  254-) 

Is  it  true,  Devadatto,  as  they  say,  that  thou 
goest  about  to  stir  up  schism  in  the  Order  and 
schism  in  our  society  ? — It  is  true.  Lord. — 
Enough,  Devadatto.  Let  not  schism  in  the 
Order  be  pleasing  unto  thee  :  serious,  O 
Devadatto,  is  a  schism  in  the  Order.  Whoso- 
ever, Devadatto,  divides  the  Order  when  it  is 
at  peace  gives  birth  to  an  ceon-lasting  fault,  and 
for  an  aeon  he  is  tormented  in  hell.  But  who- 
soever, Devadatto,  makes  peace  in  the  Order 
when  it  has  been  divided  gives  birth  to  the 
highest  merit  (literally,  Brahma-merit),  and 
for  an  aeon  he  is  happy  in  paradise. 

18 


The  words  aiwvio^  aimnrnixa  in  Mark  III.  29,  are  the 
exact  verbal  equivalent  of  the  Pali  kappaiihikavcs. 
ktbbzsarci,  or,  as  the  Siam  edition  has  it,  kappaii- 
httikam.  Schism  is  the  deadly  sin  of  Buddhism, 
the  other  four  of  its  deadly  sins  being  rare  deeds  of 
violence — matricide,  parricide,  saint-murder  and 
wounding  a  Buddha.  The  deadly  sin  of  the  New 
Testament  is  resistance  to  the  Divine  operation, 
while  that  of  the  Mazdeans  is  self-defilement. 
(S.  B.  E.  IV.,  p.  loi.)  The  Christian  and  Buddhist 
ones  are  of  long  retribution,  but  terminable,  for  an 
everlasting  hell  was  not  held  by  the  Jews  at  the 
time  of  Christ,  and  is  not  implied  in  the  Master's 
terms.  Only  the  Mazdean  uses  the  language  of 
absolute  despair ;  but  if  the  universalism  of  the 
Bundahish  be  a  true  tradition  from  the  lost  Damdad 
Nosk,  then  even  this  sin  is  finally  forgiven. 

Let  it  not  be  imagined  that  the  writer  has  hastily 
formed  the  conclusion  of  a  dependence  of  Chris- 
tianity upon  Buddhism,  still  less  that  he  regards 
such  dependence  as  more  than  occasional.  At  the 
very  outset  of  my  Indian  studies  (which  began  in 
1880)  I  read  Rhys  Davids'  introduction  to  the  Book 
of  the  Great  Decease  (1881)  wherein  he  denounces 
attempts  to  trace  connection  between  the  two  re- 
ligions. This  made  a  lasting  impression  on  me ; 
and  it  was  not  until  1899,  when  Rendel  Harris 
directed  my  attention  to  the  Buddhist  element  in 
the  Acts  of  Thomas,  that  the  early  deterrent  of 
Rhys  Davids  began  to  weaken. 

Deeper  research   has   since   convinced  me,  not 

19 


only  of  the  possibility,  but  of  the  probability,  of 
such  a  connection,  albeit  in  a  limited  degree.  It 
was  during  1899  that  I  discovered  the  verbal  parallel 
in  John  XII.  34.  This  excited  my  curiosity  and, 
together  with  the  phrase  in  Mark,  discovered  earlier, 
caused  a  more  systematic  search.  The  search  was 
mostly  original,  for  I  made  very  little  use  of  my 
predecessors.  Indeed  the  Enunciations  and  the 
Logia  Book,  wherein  the  chief  of  my  first  discoveries 
were  made,  had  not  been  translated,  and  the  latter 
not  even  now. 

In  Buddhist  and  Christian  Gospels,  p.  49,  are 
these  words  : — 

**  I  would  not,  with  Seydel,  extend  the  Buddhist 
influence  to  the  entire  Christian  Epic,  but  limit  it  to 
the  Gospel  of  Luke,  and  perhaps  John.  Even  in 
doing  this  much,  I  submit  it  only  as  an  hypothesis." 

In  the  next  edition  the  last  sentence  will  be  can- 
celled, and  the  order  of  Luke  and  John  reversed. 
The  case  for  John  is  now  stronger  than  that  for  Luke. 

The  Gospels  of  Luke  and  John  are  those  which 
present  the  most  literary  finish  and  betray  the 
widest  acquaintance  with  ancient  learning.  The 
German  theory  of  the  Lucan  authorship  is  this  : — 
Luke  was  a  follower  of  Paul,  and  kept  a  diary  of 
their  travels.  This  diary  was  used  by  the  author 
of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  The  Acts  is  avowedly 
the  second  part  of  the  Gospel  by  the  same  writer. 
(Acts  I.  I,  compared  with  Luke  I.  1-4.)  As  Luke's 
diary  was  largely  embedded  in  the  Acts  (the  "  WE 
Sections")  his  great  name  was  ascribed  to  the  two 


books.  This  was  a  regular  literary  practice  in 
those  times.  Tertullian,  a  Roman  lawyer  and  one 
of  the  most  learned  of  the  early  Christians,  says 
that  the  works  of  disciples  are  accounted  those  of 
their  masters.  In  other  words,  a  book  must  be 
heralded  by  a  great  name.  This  principle  is  not 
unknown  among  ourselves.  A  few  years  ago  a 
well-known  Quaker  antiquary  wrote  a  History  of 
Philadelphia,  and  the  publishers  ascribed  it,  on  the 
title-page,  to  the  then  librarian  of  Congress. 

It  was  the  aim  of  the  early  Church  to  make  each 
Gospel  rest  upon  apostolic  testimony.  Mark  was 
called  the  Gospel  of  Peter,  because  Mark  was 
Peter's  secretary  ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  some 
scenes  in  that  terse  incomparable  book  are  derived 
from  the  recollections  of  the  great  disciple.  Mat- 
thew was  the  penman  among  the  little  band,  and 
he,  says  Papias,  compiled  the  Lord's  Oracles  or 
Utterances.  True,  his  original  collection  has  been 
interwoven,  by  a  later  editor,  with  the  biography  of 
Mark,  plus  certain  later  legends  and  minus  much 
of  the  rugged  humanity  of  the  second  Evangelist ; 
but  Matthew's  name  is  given  to  the  present  highly 
composite  production.  John  died  at  Ephesus,  says 
a  second-century  tradition,  and  the  Fourth  Gospel 
emanated  from  the  same  metropolis.  Doubtless 
the  genius  who  wrote  that  divine  drama  was  sup- 
plied with  certain  matter  from  the  son  of  Zebedee. 
This  would  be  enough  to  fasten  the  latter's  name 
upon  the  book.  Yet  the  book  itself  ends  with  an 
editorial  postscript,  as  if  by  several  hands  : 

We  know  that  his  testimony  is  true. 


Grotius  long  ago  pointed  out  that  the  postscript 
chapter  (John  XXI.)  must  be  by  a  later  hand,  be- 
cause it  implies  the  death  of  the  beloved  disciple. 
But  the  literary  principles  of  antiquity  permitted 
the  whole  work  to  pass  under  the  name  of  the  last 
surviving  apostle,  whose  aged  recollections  had 
been  the  stafif  of  the  Evangelist.  I  am  sometimes 
tempted  to  regard  the  Beloved  Disciple  (so  con- 
spicuously absent  in  the  Synoptists)  as  a  Christian 
imitation  of  Buddha's  Anando.  Indeed  it  is  re- 
markable that  both  these  beloveds  were  assured  by 
the  Masters  of  attaining  heaven  here  : — 

JOHN  APPENDIX  (John  XXI.  22.) 

If  I  will  that  he  tarry  till  I  come,  what  is 
that  to  thee  ?     (Cf.  Mark  IX.  i.) 


NUMERICAL  COLLECTION  III.  80. 


Even  in  this  life  will  Anando  enter  Nir- 
vana.    (12) 

Moreover,  in  the  very  Buddhist  book,  The  Way 
to  Supernal  Knowledge,  where  the  first  parallel 
herein  discussed  occurs,  is  a  chapter  which  is  quite 
Johannine.  It  follows  the  chapter  about  the  Twin 
Miracle,  and  is  followed  in  turn  by  one  about  the 
Lord's  omniscience.  Mrs.  Caroline  Rhys  Davids 
has  already  pointed   out  the  Christian   parallelism 

(12)     Buddhist  and  Christian  Gospels,  p.  211. 


in  this  book,  I.  54,  (13)  and  I  will  here  translate  its 
most  significant  features  : — 

What  is  the  Tathagato's  knowledge  of  the 
attainment  of  the  Great  Compassion  ?     (14) 

Great  compassion  for  creatures  descends 
into  the  Blessed  Buddhas  when  they  see,  by 
many  tokens,  that  the  abodes  of  the  world  are 
on  fire  ;  that  they  are  on  the  march,  departed, 
fallen  into  an  evil  way.  The  unstable  world 
is  carried  along ;  the  world  is  defenceless, 
companionless,  without  goods,  when  all  that  is 
transient  is  forsaken.  Incomplete,  unsated  is 
the  world,  the  slave  of  Thirst ;  defenceless  are 
the  abodes  of  the  world  ;  without  shelter,  with- 
out refuge,  without  a  right  path ;  inflated,  un- 
soothed  is  the  world.    The  abodes  of  the  world 

(13)  Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  January,  1906. 

(14)  The  Great  Compassion  means  the  Buddha's  com- 
passion as  distinguished  from  a  disciple's  ;  for  every  good 
Buddhist  practises  the  pity-meditation,  wherein  he  projects 
his  mind  compassionately  toward  all  creatures.  The  (ireat 
Compassion  is  a  later  development  of  Buddhism,  and  the  Way 
to  Supernal  Knowledge  is  itself  a  book  of  the  third  stage  of 
growth,  and  really  belongs  to  Abhidhammo.  The  Island 
Chronicle  says  that  its  canonicity  was  disputed  at  the  Second 
Council  of  the  Order,  in  the  fourth  century  B.  C.  It  is,  how- 
ever, probably  later  than  that.  The  famous  document  in  the 
Island  Chronicle  appears  to  refer  to  a  quarrel  that  occurred  at 
the  Council  of  Agnimitra  (about  150  B.  C. )  It  is  out  of  place 
at  the  Council  of  Vesali,  (See  Sacred  Books  of  the  East, 
Vol.  XIX.  p.  XV.) 

^3 


have  thorns,  are  pierced  with  many  thorfts,  and 
no7te  can  draw  them  out  but  I ;  flung  into  a  cage 
of  corruption,  wrapt  in  the  gloom  of  ignorance, 
and  there  is  none  can  show  it  light  but  I. 
The  abodes  of  the  world,  given  over  to  ignor- 
ance, darkened,  enveloped,  become  as  tangled 
threads,  covered  with  blotches,  become  as 
sedge  and  bulrushes,  escape  not  from  doom, 

perdition,   destruction  and  transmigration 

When  the  Blessed  Buddhas  see  all  these 
things,  the  Great  Compassion  for  creatures 
enters  into  them,  and  they  say :  I  have  crossed 
over,  but  the  world  has  not ;  I  am  emancipated, 
but  the  world  is  not ;  I  am  subdued,  but  the 
world  is  unsubdued  ;  I  am  at  peace,  but  the  world 
is  not  at  peace ;  comforted^  but  the  world  is  not 
comforted ;  extinguished,  (15)  while  the  world 
is  not.  And  I  w^ho  have  crossed  over,  can  help 
others  to  cross  ;  emancipated,  I  can  set  them 
free ;  subdued,  I  can  make  them  self-con- 
trolled ;  at  peace,  I  can  give  them  peace  ;  comforted, 
I  ca7i  console  them ;  arrived  at  Nirvana,  I  can 
take  them  thereunto. 

The  Way  to  Supernal  Knowledge,  though  not 
an  early  book  of  the  Canon,  is  decidedly  pre-Chris- 
tian. The  Abhidharma,  wherewith  it  is  a  connect- 
ing link,  was  developed  between  the  time  of  Asoko 
(and  even  earlier)  and  the    Christian   era.     Taka- 

(15)  Or,  arrived  at  Nirvana.  Several  noble  texts  in  the 
Sutras  teach  us  that  extinction  of  egoism  is  not  extinction  of 
the  higher  personality. 

z4 


kusu's  masterly  article  in  the  Journal  of  the  Pali 
Text  Society  for  1905  has  made  this  clear.  Some 
treatise  on  the  Supernal  Knowledges  was  part  of 
the  Canon  of  the  Realists,  (16)  a  different  sect  from 
that  of  the  Elders  who  have  transmitted  to  us  the 
Pali.  According  to  the  Realists  this  treatise  existed 
at  the  First  Council,  while  the  Elders  imply  the 
same.  We  shall  know  the  dates  of  these  books  a 
great  deal  more  precisely  when  the  voluminous 
Buddhist  literature  of  China  is  translated.  The 
scholars  of  Japan  are  already  aroused  to  the  import- 
ance of  this  work,  and  the  names  of  Nanjio, 
Takakusu,  Minakata,  Anesaki  and  Suzuki  will  be 
held  in  grateful  remembrance  by  students  of  Bud- 
dhism as  pioneers  in  this  great  undertaking. 

The  Statement  of  Knowledges,  in  the  Way  to 
Supernal  Knowledge,  is  the  section  which  contains 
the  passages  on  the  miraculous  water  and  the  Great 
Compassion,  and  it  places  immediately  after  them 
a  concluding  chapter  on  the  Omniscience  of 
Buddha.  This  whole  section  is  supported  by  an 
ancient  table  of  contents,  while  succeeding  sections 
are  not.  It  is  a  curious  coincidence  that  the  very 
sutra  said  by  the  fifth-century  commentator  to  have 
converted  the  Greek  empire  was  one  on  the 
Buddha's  omniscience.      (17)    Though  the  Greek 

(16)  See  Suzuki's  translation,  from  the  Chinese,  of  the 
contents  of  their  Canon.  (Monist,  January,  1904,  p.  275.) 
The  Sanskrit  term  is  Pratisawvid. 

(17)  The  discourse  in  the  Squirrel  Park  at  Sdketa  :  Numer- 
ical Collection  IV.  24.  This  appears  to  be  the  only  sermon 
in  the  Ka/akaramo  in  the  Canon. 

^5 


empire  ( Yonalokd)  of  the  chroniclers  meant  Bactria, 
yet  literature  there  current  was  liable  to  permeate 
the  Hellenic  world.  According  to  the  same  chron- 
iclers, the  Way  to  Supernal  Knowledge  was  in  the 
Canon  committed  to  writing  in  Ceylon  in  the  first 
century  B.  C.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that 
it  or  a  kindred  document  should  be  quoted  by  the 
Evangelist  as  writing  or  Scripture  (r(>«f'y)- 

In  the  sixties  of  the  first  century,  when  Paul  was 
standing  before  Nero,  Buddhism  was  being  officially 
welcomed  into  China.  During  that  memorable 
decade  a  Buddhist  book  (i8)  was  compiled  in 
Chinese  and  a  temple  built  in  its  honor.  This  book 
was  a  popular  manual  long  posterior  to  the  sacred 
texts,  which  it  presupposes.  A  legendary  life  of 
Buddha,  akin  to  the  Lalita  Vistara,  was  also 
translated  ;  and  this  too  betrays  an  advanced  stage 
of  the  Buddhist  Holv  Writ.  The  official  com- 
mentaries  of  the  Indo-Scythian  Kanishka,  which 
date  from  this  age  or  very  little  later,  also  pre- 
suppose the  Pitakas,  including  the  Abhidharma. 

The  greatest  gap  in  the  history  of  Buddhism  is 
the   record    of   its   westward   career.     Readers   of 

(i8)  The  Sutra  of  42  Sections.  Near  the  beginning  we 
read  :  "  Buddha  said  :  The  Arahat  is  able  to  fly  through 
the  air,  change  his  appearance,  ^/fjc  the  years  of  his  life,  shake 
heaven  and  earth,"  Here  we  have  proof  that  the  doctrine  of 
John  XII.  34  was  brought  into  China  from  India  in  67  A.  D. 

Since  the  printing  of  p.  15,  my  learned  friend,  Frank 
Normart,  has  told  me  that,  in  John  XII.  34,  the  Armenian 
version  (fourth  century)  reads:  "The  Christ  has  existed 
from  eternity. ' ' 

a6 


Darwin  will  remember  that  in  the  Origin  of  Species 
there  is  a  remarkable  chapter  on  the  Imperfection 
of  the  Geological  Record.  Indeed  it  marks  an 
epoch  in  the  science  of  geology.  In  like  manner 
the  historian  of  Buddhism  (when  another  century 
of  translations  and  critiques  makes  possible  his 
task)  will  have  to  write  a  chapter  on  the  Imperfec- 
tion of  the  Record.  Two  Buddhist  countries — 
Cashmere  and  Ceylon — were  the  homes  of  two 
ancient  sects,  the  Realists  and  the  Elders ;  and 
these  have  left  us  recensions  of  the  Canon  and  ex- 
tensive commentaries.  But  from  the  greater  part 
of  India  all  traces  of  Buddhism,  except  ruins,  have 
been  swept  away.  Indeed  the  Canon  and  com- 
mentaries of  Cashmere  are  preserved  only  in 
Chinese  and  Tibetan  translations,  with  a  mere  frac- 
tion in  Sanskrit.  Still  greater  havoc  has  been 
wrought  in  Bactria  and  Persia,  those  bufTer  lands 
between  Buddhadom  and  Christendom,  where  both 
religions  contended  for  the  mastery  with  Mazdeism, 
until  the  ruthless  hand  of  Islam  buried  all.  Some 
literary  relics  of  these  realms  are  preserved  in  China 
and  Tibet,  and  will  one  day  be  made  known  ;  but 
it  is  doubtful  whether  any  connected  chronicles, 
such  as  those  of  Ceylon,  will  be  recovered.  All 
records  therefore  of  Greek  or  Syriac  translations 
have  disappeared.  There  went  out  a  fire  from  the 
Koran  which  consumed  them. 

Even  when  translations  themselves  perish,  we 
sometimes  find  the  fact  recorded  that  they  were. 
This  is  true  of  the  Greek  version  of  the  Avesta,  of 
the  Singhalese  commentaries  on  the  Pali  texts,  and 

27 


of  certain  extinct  Cliinese  translations  of  the  life 
and  words  of  Buddha.  But  if  the  Ceylon  Chron- 
icles had  been  lost,  we  should  never  have  known 
the  existence  of  the  ancient  Singhalese  commenta- 
ries ;  and  if  Pliny  had  been  lost,  we  should  not 
have  known  that  there  ever  was  a  Greek  Avesta. 
-  Thus  we  have  to  thank  the  Moslem  for  oblitera- 
ting the  traces  of  that  lost  version  of  the  Sutras 
which  travelled  westward.  There  is  no  need  to 
postulate  a  complete  version  ;  but  it  is  incredible 
that  Greek  Kings  like  Menander,  (19)  who  in- 
quired into  Buddhism,  should  have  been  content  to 
let  the  profound  philosophy  of  Gotamo  repose  in 
an  unknown  tongue  when  curious  Athenians  were 
hungry  for  news  of  the  celebrated  thinkers.  What 
happened  when  Barlaam  and  Joasaph  was  carried 
westward  had  happened  before.  Thus,  we  know 
from  Epiphanius,  that  Mani,  in  the  third  century, 
had  access  to  Hindu  books  of  magic.  Mani 
despatched  his  disciple  Adda  to  the  lands  beyond 
the  Euphrates,  and  in  Chinese  Turkestan  we  have 
now  found  the  fruits  of  his  mission.  Moreover, 
about  the  year  100,  a  semi-Mazdean  Buddhist  book, 
composed  in  Parthia,  was  carried  to  Rome,  and  be- 
came the  scripture  of  a  Christian  heresy. 

If  the  apostle  Thomas  did  actually  visit  Parthia, 
as  Eusebius  says,  why  should  he  not  have  brought 
back  with  him,  on  one  of  his  journeys,  an  Indian 
book  ?     It  is  significant  that  the  Gospel  of  John, 

(19)  Menander' s  discussion  with  a  Buddhist  monk  has 
been  translated  by  Rhys  Davids  (S.  B.  E.  xxxv,  xxxvi.) 

28 


wherein  our  Buddhist  passages  occur,  is  the  only 
one  of  the  four  that  tells  anything  about  Thomas 
beyond  his  name  in  a  list.  John  represents  him  as 
a  sceptic,  and  he  must  therefore  have  had  an  intel- 
lectual nature  which  would  permit  of  an  interest  in 
Gentile  philosophy.  But,  mere  conjecture  apart, 
the  fact  remains  that,  since  the  hymns  of  Ephrem 
of  Edessa  in  the  fourth  century,  the  name  of  Thomas 
has  been  demonstrably  associated,  not  only  with 
Parthia  but  with  India  ;  and  the  Gospel  and  Acts 
ascribed  to  him  are  full  of  Indian  influences.    (20) 

According  to  Eusebius,  the  Gospels  were  pub- 
Hshed  by  the  Church  in  the  reign  of  Trajan  (A.  D. 
98 — 117.)  Of  course,  they  had  existed  in  some 
form  before  this,  but  this  was  the  date  of  their 
authoritative  redaction,  when  the  Mark  Appendix 
was  added,  and  (I  have  given  reasons  elsewhere  for 
saying)  the  Matthaean  Infancy  Section  also.    (21) 

None  of  these  things  are  stated  lightly,  but  as 
the  result  of  a  lifetime  of  research.  Since  1875, 
and  especially  since  1889,  I  have  been  a  student  of 
the  Gospels  ;  for  around  them  my  youthful  mem- 
ories are  most  deeply  entwined,  and  most  of  my 
Buddhist  studies  have  been  to  explain  and  eluci- 
date them.  (22)  Had  it  been  in  my  power  to  pub- 
lish   my   Documentary   Introduction    to   the   Four 

(20)  See  Buddhist  and  Christian  Gospels,  Historical  In- 
troduction, and  Bishop  Medlycott's  India  and  the  Apostle 
Thomas.     (London,  1905.) 

(21)  Buddhist  and  Christian  Gospels,  p.  15. 

(22)  The  Gospels  conquered  the  Sutras  (i)  because  they 


Gospels,  written  between  1891  and  1 898,  my  present 
words  would  have  had  more  weight.  (23)  The 
earliest  quotations  from  the  Gospels  which  are  there 
collected,  together  with  the  analysis  of  the  books 
themselves  which  I  made  by  the  aid  of  Abbott  and 
Rushbrooke,  have  convinced  me  that  the  German 
theory  of  their  origin  is  by  no  means  far-fetched. 
Individual  scholars  may  carry  it  too  far,  but  on  the 
whole  it  is  true  to  the  facts. 

In  the  main  the  Gospels  are  original  documents, 
deriving  their  inspiration  from  the  life  and  words 
of  Jesus.  But  every  writer  quotes  his  predecessors 
and  contemporaries,  consciously  or  unconsciously  ; 
and  these,  the  most  exalted  literary  works  of  any 
age  or  clime,  are  no  exception. 

travelled  on  the  larger  arc  of  the  missionary  circle  around  the 
world  ;  (2)  because  they  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  strongest 
nations  ;  (3)  because  they  were  less  metaphysical  and  pre- 
sented a  personal  Creator  ;  (4)  because  the  genius  of  the 
Hebrews,  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans  made  them  master- 
pieces of  condensation.  The  Gospels  were  written  and  re- 
written within  a  single  century  ;  the  Sutras  were  elaborated 
and  re-elaborated  through  half  a  millennium.  But  to  him 
who  can  glean  therefrom  the  pithy  oracles  of  Gotamo,  and 
picture  in  his  mind  the  sublime  life-scenes  of  the  Indian 
Messiah,  the  Gospels  themselves  have  a  rival.  The  battle  is 
not  over  yet,  but  with  the  growth  of  wisdom  we  shall  cease  to 
destroy,  and  shall  preserve  the  best  in  both,  relegating  the 
Infancy  Sections  and  their  like  to  a  juvenile  Basket  of  Jatakas 
and  Antilegomena. 

(23)  The  MS.  may  be  consulted  at  the  Historical  Society 
of  Pennsylvania.  An  abstract  of  it  will  be  found  in  Buddhist 
and  Christian  Gospels,  p.  iv. 

30 


APPENDIX  A. 

The  Buddhist  Gospel  Scenes 

on  the  Great  Tope  at 

Ariuradhapura,  in  the  second  century,  B.  C. 


Translated  from  the  metrical  Great  Chronicle  of 
Ceylon  (Mahava;;2So)  Chapter  30. 

The  two  lines  in  red  ink  are  the  context  of  the  quotations 
in  John  VII.  38  and  XII.  34.  Those  in  italics  are  the  subjects 
of  the  Miracle  Sutra,  uncanonical  according  to  the  present 
Pali  Canon  (which  owes  its  final  arrangement  to  Dhatuseno  in 
the  fifth  century)  but  evidently  considered  authentic  enough 
to  be  pictured  in  the  second  century  B.  C. 


Unto  the  scenes  of  the  Seven  Weeks, 
Here  and  there,  as  he  worthy  thought, 
Due  inscriptions  the  builder  made. 

1  Brahma's  prayer  he  depicted  eke, 

2  Founding  the  Spiritual  Empire  too, 

3  Also  Yasa's  discipleship, 

4  Conversion  of  Bhadra's  company, 

5  Likewise  taming  the  hermits  wild, 

6  Bimbisara's  reception  eke, 

7  Entry  into  the  capital, 

8  Taking  the  Bamboo  Forest  Park, 

9  Also  eighty  disciples  there, 
10  Return  to  Kapilavastu  town, 

31 


1 1  Also  the  jewel  cloister  there, 

12  Nando  and  Rahulo  converts  made, 

13  Also  taking  the  Victor's  Grove, 

14  Miracle  under  the  mango-tree, 

15  Preaching  in  Indra! s  paradise, 

16  Miracle  of  the  descent  from  heaven, 

17  Crowd  that  the  Elder's  question  made, 

18  Text  of  the  Great  Concourse  divine, 

19  Also  sermon  to  Rahulo, 

20  Text  of  Greatest  Beatitudes, 

21  Crowd  around  Wealth-guard  the  elephant, 
22,  23     A/avo,  Aggulimalo  eke, 

24  Taming  of  Apalalo  too, 

25  Parayanaka  brahmin-throng  ; 

26  Rejecting  the  residue  of  life, 

27  Taking  the  dried-boar  offering, 

28  Also  the  gold-cloth  pair  of  robes, 

29  Draught  of  the  clarified  water  eke, 

30  Likewise  Parinirva^a  too, 

31  Lamentation  of  gods  and  men, 

32  Elder  saluting  the  dead  Lord's  feet, 

33  Kindling  and  quenching  the  funeral  pyre, 

34  Likewise  rites  that  accompanied, 

35  X^ono  dividing  the  relics  eke. 

Birth-tales  told  by  the  Well-born  One 
Round  about  did  the  architect 
Picture  to  preach  to  the  multitude  : 


32 


36     Birth  Vessantara  wrought  in  full, 
38     And  all  the  acts  from  the  Tusita  City 
Unto  the  Bo-tree's  mystic  throne. 


The  last  two  lines  imply  the  Nativity  legends, 
such  as  the  Angelic  Heralds,  the  prediction  of 
Asito,  etc.  They  are  evidently  classed  with  the 
Jatakas,  which  were  scattered  around  everywhere 
{yebhuyyend)  to  edify  the  common  folk.  The  bulk 
of  the  scenes  are  from  the  Major  Section  on  Dis- 
cipline and  the  Book  of  the  Great  Decease.  Bishop 
Copleston  has  doubted  the  genuineness  of  the 
Chronicle's  account  of  the  sculptures,  and  thinks  it 
may  be  fiction.  But  the  following  scenes  are  found 
at  Bharahat  and  Sanci,  in  Central  India,  two  ruins 
dating  from  very  early  times  and,  roughly  speak- 
ing, coeval  with  the  Ceylon  tope.  (24)  At  Bhar- 
ahat are  Nos.  11  (perhaps),  13,  16,  24,  and  parts  of 
37  ;  at  Sanci  are  Nos.  2,  4,  5,  6,  16,  and  parts  of 
37.  No.  16,  which  is  both  at  Bharahat  and  Sanci, 
is  the  Sa?/zkissa  Ladder,  i.  e.  the  ladder  whereby 
Buddha  descended  from  heaven  at  Sa;;zkissa  (or 
Saw2ka9ya),  after  preaching  the  Gospel  to  his  mother 
in  the  other  world — another  proof  of  the  antiquity 
of  the  contents  of  the  Miracle  Siitra.  The  scene 
from  the  Infancy  legends  common  to  Bharahat  and 

(24)  Griinwedel,  in  his  Buddhist  Art  in  India  (EngHsh 
translation,  London,  1905,  pp.  5  and  23)  places  both  Bharahat 
and  Sanci  gateways  in  the  second  century  B.  C.  The  gate- 
ways are  the  latest  portions  of  the  shrine. 

33 


Sanci  is  the  dream  of  Buddha's  mother  about  his 
descent  from  heaven  into  her  womb.  This  inci- 
dent is  not  in  the  PaU  Texts  on  the  Marvellous 
Birth  (Long  Collection,  No.  14  ;  Middling  Collec- 
tion, No.  123)  but  in  the  commentaries  and  other 
extra-canonical  treatises.  As  I  have  argued,  in 
Buddhist  and  Christian  Gospels,  if  the  comme^itary 
be  older  than  the  Christian  era,  a  fortiori  the 
text  is.  Though  the  Ceylon  Chronicles  contain 
many  absurdities,  yet  Indian  archaeology  has  con- 
firmed their  trustworthiness  in  main  matters. 
Bishop  Copleston  admits  this,  and,  applying  his 
principles,  I  contend  for  the  historicity  of  the  sculp- 
tures in  question  on  the  ground  of  their  like  being 
found  at  Bharahat  and  Sanci ;  and  these  remains 
are  but  accidental  fractions  of  the  multitude  of 
shrines.  They  owe  their  partial  preservation  to 
being  in  out-of-the  way  places,  afar  from  the  de- 
structive Moslem.  What  care  we  if  the  Chronicler 
says  that  Asoko  built  eighty-four  thousand  topes, 
when  we  find  half  India  covered  with  his  ruins? 
As  to  Kern's  objection  about  the  suspicious  dupli- 
cation of  names,  how  many  Christian  monks  and 
bishops  are  named  Gregory  and  Jerome  ! 

In  the  cases  of  Nos.  18  and  20,  it  is  probable 
that  the  actual  texts  were  graven  on  the  tope.  In 
each  case  the  word  Suttanto  or  Suttajii  is  used.  No. 
18  is  the  twentieth  Sutra  in  the  Pali  Long  Collec- 
tion (Chinese  No.  12,  according  to  Takakusu). 
This  text  was  evidently  talismanic,  for  the  Chinese 
transliterated  it,  so  as  to  preserve  the  exact  Hindu 

34 


sounds.  Moreover,  both  this  Sutra,  and  Nos.  2, 
20  and  22  of  our  Ust  are  in  the  Paritta,  an  ancient 
anthology  recited  in  Ceylon  to  this  day  to  ward  off 
evil.  No.  19  was  a  favorite  text  of  Asoko's,  and  it 
is  found  in  his  rock-written  list  of  selections. 

In  translating  the  Chronicle's  list,  I  have  imitated 
the  rugged  metre  of  the  original  without  any  sacri- 
fice of  the  sense.  It  is  poor  poetry  from  a  literary 
standpoint,  the  lines  being  filled  out  by  such  easy 
phrases  as  eva  ca  ("  and  also") ;  but  to  a  student  of 
the  Sutras,  to  whom  every  line  calls  up  a  vivid  pic- 
ture, this  artless  catalogue  is  sublime.     (25) 

The  Great  Chronicle  relates  that  delegates 
from  all  parts  of  Buddhadom  came  to  celebrate  the 
Tope's  completion,  and  among  them  were  repre- 
sentatives "  from  Alexandria,  the  city  of  the 
Greeks."  Even  if  one  of  the  less  known  Alexan 
drias  be  meant,  we  yet  gather  from  the  record  that 
spectators  of  these  sculptured  scenes  returned  to 
the  Greek  empire  to  tell  what  they  had  beheld. 
But  Sylvain  Levi  of  Paris  has  pointed  out  that  the 
expression,  "  Alexandria  the  city  of  the  Greeks," 
is  regularly  used  by  the  Hindu  astronomers  to 
mean  the  Egyptian  capital.  And  from  this  capital 
the  King  of  Ceylon  had  doubtless  secured  some 
sculptors,  so  that  nothing  would  be  more  natural 

(25)  Some  years  ago  I  copied  the  Pali  into  a  pocketbook, 
and  carried  it  about  with  me  until  I  knew  it  by  heart.  The 
following  note  is  found  beneath  it: — "The  sublime  sim- 
plicity of  this  list  of  the  great  Life-Scenes  moves  me  as  do  the 
Obsecrations  in  the  Litany,     October,  1900  " 

35 


than  for  their  Alexandrian  friends  to  be  represented 
at  the  opening.  We  cannot  therefore  be  surprised 
if  the  Evangelists  were  acquainted  with  all  these 
scenes  and  their  Scriptural  incidents,  which  would 
naturally  be  explained  to  the  pilgrims.  Thus,  No. 
21  is  the  conspiracy  of  Devadatto  (the  Buddhist 
Judas)  against  his  Master's  life,  by  means  of  the 
drunken  elephant,  upon  which  occasion  the  Lord 
uttered  the  terrible  oracle  about  the  cson-lasting  sin. 
(Buddhist  and  Christian  Gospels,  Parallel  84).  No. 
23  is  the  Penitent  Robber  (Parallel  28) ;  No.  24  is 
the  taming  of  a  kind  of  demon  ;  while  Nos.  14  and 
26  (as  we  have  said  above)  are  the  context  of  the 
passages  in  John  which  are  explicitly  quoted  as 
Scripture.  Neither  in  the  Law,  the  Prophets  nor 
the  Hagiographa  of  the  Jewish  Canon  do  these 
oracles  occur  ;  but  both  have  stood  for  ages  in  the 
Law,  or  Dharma,  of  the  Buddha. 

It  is  a  matter  of  little  moment  to  our  use  of  the 
Chronicle's  list  whether  these  sculptures  were  seen 
by  the  Chronicler  or  only  imagined.  If  he  imag- 
ined them,  it  was  because  he  knew  that  these  very 
Gospel  scenes  were  graven  upon  other  monuments 
of  those  palmy  days  ;  and  thousands  more  besides 
the  Alexandrine  delegates  to  Ceylon  had  returned 
to  the  Roman  Empire  to  tell  the  story  of  the 
Buddha.  A  profound  modern  student  of  Buddhist 
sculptures  has  stated  his  final  impression  in  the 
following  words  : — 

"  Few  who  are  familiar  with  the  arts  of  Rome  in 
Constantine's  time,  and  who  will  take  the  trouble 
to  master  these  Amaravati  sculptures,  can  fail  to 

36 


perceive  many  points  of  affinity  between  them. 
The  circular  medallions  of  the  arch  of  Constantine 
— such  as  belong  to  his  time — and  the  general  tone 
of  the  art  of  his  age  so  closely  resemble  what  we 
find  here  that  the  coincidence  can  hardly  be  acci- 
dental. The  conviction  that  the  study  of  these 
sculptures  has  forced  on  my  mind  is  that  there  was 
much  more  inter cornmumcatwn  between  the  East 
and  the  West  during  the  period  from  Alexander  to 
Justinian  than  is  generally  supposed  ;  and  that  the 
intercourse  was  especially  frequent  and  influential 
in  the  m.iddle  period^  between  Augustus  and  Con- 
stantineT     [Italics  mine]. 

Thus  wrote  James  Fergusson  in  1867,  in  a  note 
in  his  Description  of  the  Amaravati  Tope — a  note 
which  reappeared  in  his  great  work,  Tree  and 
Serpent  Worship.  Though  many  of  his  conjectures 
have  been  invalidated,  yet  this  one,  founded  upon 
first-hand  study,  has  been  abundantly  confirmed. 
We  now  know  that  there  is  a  chain  of  Greek  art 
reaching  all  the  way  from  the  Adriatic  to  the 
Ganges ;  and  the  same  sculptors  who  wrought  a 
Buddhist  Gospel  scene  in  India  could  be  working 
later  on  the  arch  of  Titus.  Coins  of  all  the  Roman 
emperors  from  Augustus  to  Hadrian  are  in  the 
museum  at  Madras,  and  those  of  King  Gondophares 
of  the  Acts  of  Thomas  are  also  found.  The  royal 
agent  Abbanes  (a  good  Pali  name,  which  means 
Unwounded)  who  came  to  Jerusalem  seeking  an 
artificer,  is  not  all  fiction,  for  both  Christian  and 
Buddhist  romances  are  founded  on  the  facts  of 
ancient  life. 

37 


APPENDIX  B.      (NOTES.     7,  8,  9,  10.) 

(7) '  But  the  Sanskrit  Divyvadana,  which  preserves  a  reminis- 
cence of  the  text,  has  "  flow"  : — adhah.  kdyam.  prajvdlayafy, 
uparimdt  kdydc  chltald  vdn'd/idrdh  sy andante:  ' '  Below  his  body 
it  blazes  ;  from  his  upper  body  cold  torrents  flow."  These 
later  legends,  which  took  shape  in  the  North  of  India,  after 
the  main  body  of  the  Elders  had  settled  in  Ceylon  (/.  c.  be- 
tween the  third  century  B.  C.  and  the  Christian  era)  do  not 
present  the  verbal  agreements  of  the  older  pericopes.  For 
these  verbal  agreements,  see  Burnouf,  Lotus  de  la  Bonne 
Loi,  p.  859.  The  great  Buddhist  scholar  was  in  the  midst  of 
copying  passages  common  to  the  texts  discovered  in  Nepal 
and  Ceylon,  when  his  hand  was  arrested  by  death  (March, 
[852).     Our  science  was  then  put  back  for  half  a  century. 

(8)  The  Avadanas  are  semi-canonical.  They  were  only 
admitted  into  the  Pali  Canon  by  one  school  of  reciters  ;  but 
their  presence  in  later  recensions  of  that  Canon  and  in  those 
of  other  sects  entitles  them  to  be  called  semi-canonical.  The 
Realists  and  the  Docetists  evidently  placed  them  in  the  Vinaya 
Pitaka,  while  the  Elders  and  the  Dharmaguptas  placed  them 
in  a  fifth  Agama  or  Nikayo,  called  Short  Collection  and  Mis- 
cellaneous Pitaka.  The  Great  Council  Canon,  which  boasted 
that  it  was  free  from  "  the  false  additions"  of  the  others,  had 
no  Avadanas,  but  only  the  germ  thereof  ;  for  in  its  Miscella- 
neous Pitaka  was  a  book  called  Nidana,  which  is  described  as 
"  circumstantial  notes  on  Pratyeka-buddhas  and  Arhats,  in 
gatha."  (Suzuki).  The  same  book  also  appears  in  the 
Miscellaneous  Pitaka  of  the  Dharmaguptas,  an  early  branch 
of  the  Elders.  This  carries  the  book  back  behind  the  final 
schism  at  the  Council  of  Agnimitra  in  the  second  century  B.  C. 

(9)  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  XIX.  p.  240.  This 
is  the  fifth-century  Chinese  translation,  which  omits  the  water- 
miracle.     It  is  desirable  to  secure  the  Tibetan  version  of  this 

38 


part  of  the  poem  (for  the  original  Sanskrit  covering  this 
point  is  lost)  and  also  the  Chinese  and  Tibetan  of  the  Miracle 
Sutra  in  the  Realist  Vinaya  Pitaka. 

(lo)  The  Ceylon  tradition  makes  a  mango-tree  near 
Savatthi  the  scene  of  the  miracle,  (Spence  Hardy,  Manual, 
p.  295.)  The  water-miracle,  however,  is  omitted  in  Hardy's 
account.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  Digha  reciters  rejected 
the  Avadanas,  it  is  quite  probable  that  these  were  developed 
among  rival  sects  ;  and  the  Way  to  Supernal  Knowledge  has 
borrowed  the  text  about  the  Twin  Miracle  from  a  source  out- 
side the  Elders'  Pali  Canon.  In  like  manner,  the  Pali  com- 
mentaries, at  a  later  date,  were  amplified  by  Buddhaghoso, 
who  came  from  continental  India.  Many  of  the  Avadana 
legends  which  had  grown  up  there  after  the  main  body  of  the 
Elders  had  developed  a  local  individuality  in  the  Dekhan  and 
Ceylon  are  included  in  these  commentaries  ;  and  the  Way  to 
Supernal  Knowledge  is  a  late  treatise,  standing  midway  be- 
tween the  Sutras  and  the  commentaries.  Its  canonicity  was 
denied  by  the  Great  Council  school,  probably  at  the  Council 
of  Agnimitra,  about  150  B.  C.  (The  Island  Chronicle  docu- 
ment is  evidently  misplaced,  for  there  were  no  "six  books  ot 
the  Abhidhammo"  at  the  Council  of  Vesali.) 


39 


CONCLUSION. 

Already  in  the  eighteenth  century  Michaelis  dis- 
cerned a  Zoroastrian  and  a  Sabian  influence  in 
John  ;  so  that  our  present  thesis  is  no  radically 
new  departure. 

Had  the  Evangelist  used  without  ascription  the 
phrases  and  doctrines  herein  set  forth,  we  might 
consider  them  due  to  a  community  of  Oriental 
ideas  ;  but  his  express  quotations  of  two  of  them  as 
Law  and  Scripture  compel  the  inference  that  they 
existed  in  some  sacred  literature  of  the  Apostolic 
age.  The  only  known  source  of  the  two  quoted 
texts  is  the  Buddhist  Canon,  which  in  the  first 
Christian  century  was  the  most  widespread  of  all 
sacred  codes — covering  even  a  vaster  field  than  its 
great  rivals,  the  Septuagint  and  the  Zend  Avesta 
(26)  and  being  the  dominant  religious  force  upon 
the  continent  of  Asia. 

(26)  The  extent  of  Mazdeism  (including  the  Mithra  cult) 
at  the  end  of  the  first  century  is  roughly  indicated  by  the 
cities  of  York,  Cabul  and  Cadiz  ;  that  of  Buddhism,  by  Cabul, 
Honan  and  Anuradhapura  ;  that  of  Judaism  and  rising  Christi- 
anity by  Marseilles,  Cadiz,  and  Ecbatana.  But  the  diffusion 
and  active  copying  of  the  sacred  canons  puts  Mazdeism  out  of 
the  race,  for  the  Avesta  was  already  crippled  and  little  known. 
(The  Greek  version  of  Hermippus  was  probably  confined  to 
Alexandria).  Of  those  purely  national  codes,  the  Vedas  and 
the  Confucian  Classics,  we  are  not  speaking,  though  Bud- 
dhism carried  a  partial  knowledge  of  the  former,  and  the 
Chinese  arms  had  probably  spread  a  knowledge  of  the  latter. 
As  to  Buddhism  and  Christianity,  while  the  impetus  of  the 
one  was  eastward  and  the  other  westward  from  the  lands  of 
their  birth,  yet  there  was  a  retrograde  movement  in  each  case, 
comparable  to  the  rebound  of  a  gun.  These  rebounds  were 
felt  in  the  Parthian  empire,  the  home  of  Mazdeism,  which  was 
therefore  the  theatre  of  the  most  complex  religious  forces. 

40 


BUDDHIST  AND  CHRISTIAN  GOSPELS 

now  first  compared  from  the  originals  : 

being  "  Gospel  Parallels  from  Pali  Texts," 

reprinted  with  additions. 

By   Albert   J.    Edmunds, 

Honorary  Member  of  the  International  Buddhist  Society  of 

Rangun,  translator  of  the  Dhammapada,  the  Buddhist 

Genesis,  &c. ,  member  of  the  Oriental  Club  of 

Philadelphia. 


Third  and  Complete  Edition. 


Edited,  with  Parallels  and  Notes 
from  the  Chinese  Buddhist  Tripitaka, 

by    M.    A  N  E  s  A  K  I , 

Professor  of  Religious  Science  in  the  Imperial  University 
of  Tokyo. 

T5kyo  : 

The  Yuh5kwan  Publishing  House 

1905. 


Note. — This  book  appeared  on  May  27,  1905.  Opinions 
of  scholars  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix  to  Fairrnount  Park 
and  other  Poems  (Fhi\a.de\phisL,  1906.)  The  whole  edition  is 
really  proof-copy,  which  the  author  never  corrected,  on 
account  of  distance.  Even  the  title  is  misprinted,  but  the 
above  is  its  correct  form.  Corrected  copies  were  presented  to 
the  National  Library  at  Washington,  in  hopes  that  the  card 
catalogue  slips,  which  are  distributed  throughout  the  States, 
would  show  the  true  title.  But  the  rules  of  bibliography 
require  that  the  blunder  of  an  Asiatic  printer  should  be 
perpetuated  rather  than  the  writing  of  the  author.  This 
comes  of  our  superstitious  regard  for  print. 

41 


ERRATA  et  Corrigenda. 

Frontispiece.  For  Pali  read  Pali. 

P.  lo,  line  15.  ¥  or  preceeding  redid  proceeding. 

P.  17,  line  II.  For  Mahavaggo  read  Mahavaggo. 

"   "     "      "  Y or  Nalaka  rt2.d  Nalaka. 

P.  31,  line  8.  For  Those  in  italics,  read  Nos.  14,  15  and  16. 

P.  38,  line  2.  For  DivyvadCma  read  Divyavadana. 

Owing  to  the  contingencies  of  Philadelphia  type-foundries, 
the  bar  and  the  circumflex  have  been  used  indiscriminately  to 
mark  long  vowels. 


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